Australia’s National Science Agency Seeks $31 Million from Cisco

(Thursday, January 23, 2014 – Tyler, Texas) Counsel for the Australian government’s science agency—Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)—squared off with Counsel for Cisco Systems, Inc. during a final pre-trial conference before Chief Judge Leonard Davis.

CSIRO’s pioneering patent combines several existing technologies in a unique way to create the wireless LAN technology underlying the IEEE 802.11 a, g and n standards, often referred to as Wi-Fi. To date, Plaintiff has licensed its patent through litigation for hundreds of millions of dollars and is seeking damages from Defendant Cisco for at least $31 million. Trial is set for February 3, 2014.

At the Final pre-trial conference, Veteran Trial Attorney James M. Wagstaffe of Kerr & Wagstaffe, along with his partners Michael Ng and Daniel Zaheer, and Michael Heim of Heim, Payne & Chorush came from California and Houston, respectively, to argue motions in limine for Plaintiff CSIRO. CSIRO brought motions in limine to ensure that Defendant could not “back-door” invalidity arguments to decrease the value of the patent-in-suit after the parties stipulated to infringement and agreed to just have a damages trial.

Similarly Defendant Cisco, lead by Louis Jameson and Matthew Yungwirth of Duane Morris, argued motions in limine to limit the Plaintiff’s ability to present evidence that Defendant actually infringed, forcing Plaintiff to only address the issue of damages. Both sides in the case demonstrated their caliber and quality through clear, thorough, and well-reasoned arguments.

Chief Judge Davis ruled from the bench that he would read a statement to the jury concerning the stipulated patent infringement of Defendant Cisco.